First free multi-party elections for The parliament of Croatia is called Hrvatski Sabor in Croatian - the word sabor means an assembly, a gathering, a congress. ...Croatian Parliament were held between April 22nd and May 7th 1990.

The elections were called by the Communist government of Croatia after constitutional ammendments allowing multi_party elections had been passed earlier in the year. The form of parliament that was about to be elected remained unchanged from 1974 Constitution _ House of Municipalities, House of Socio_Political Organisations and House of Associated Labour. The latter represented "working people" of various professions and because of that special elections were held on Monday, allowing voters to cast their ballots at their respective workplaces.

The new electoral law, devised by Smiljko Sokol and modelled on French electoral legislation, introduced Runoff voting is a voting system used in single_seat elections. ...runoff voting system. A candidate could either win in the first round by getting more than 50 % of the votes or he/she could enter second round after winning 7 % of the votes.

Elections for Parliament were also held in conjunction with elections for municipal assemblies (with identical runoff voting system).

At the very start of the campaign three major blocs emerged. The first one was dominated by former Communist Party of Croatia, rebranded into Social Democratic Party in Croatia and led by Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...Ivica Račan. Second was Coalition of People's Accord, very broad coalition of small parties representing anti_Communists and nationalists gathered around The Croatian Spring (Hrvatsko proljeće) was a political movement from the early 1970s that called for greater rights for Croatia which was then part of Yugoslavia. ...Croatian Spring leaders Savka Dabčević_Kučar and Mika Tripalo. The third group was dominated by more radical Croatian nationalists and led by The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ...Franjo Tudjman and his The Croatian Democratic Union ( Croatian: Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica, HDZ), is a Croatian political party. ...Croatian Democratic Union party. Some sections of Croatia that would later become Krajina (in various versions) is a Slavic toponym which means: borderland i. ...Krajina also saw emergence of The Serb Democratic Party (Serbian: Srpska Demokratska Stranka, SDS) is a political party for Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. ...Serb Democratic Party.

The electoral law and superior organisational abilities of HDZ founders gradually narrowed the contest down to only two options _ SDP and HDZ. The former tried to win by describing the latter as dangerous nationalist extremists and relying on votes of ethnic Serbs. The latter very skillfully used both decades of Croatian disatisfaction with Communism is a term that can refer to one of several things: a social and economic system, an ideology which supports that system, or a political movement that wishes to implement that system. ...Communism and Yugoslavia (Jugoslavija in all south Slavic languages) is a term used for three separate but successive political entities that existed during most of the 20th century on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe. ...Yugoslavia and fear of emerging Serb nationalism embodied by Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević  listen (Serbian Cyrillic: Слободан Милошевић, pronounced ; born 20 August 1941) is a former President of Serbia and of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as well as leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia. ...Slobodan Milošević.

Campaign was very emotional, but surprisingly non_violent, except in ethnically mixed areas where the first incidents _ which would ultimatley escalate into full_scale warfare one year later _ took place. One of such incidents happened in city of Benkovac, where lone Serb nationalist attacked Franjo Tudjman during election rally.

First results of elections for two houses of Parliament were announced in the evening of April 22nd. Although HDZ failed to win outright majority in the first round, the number of seats won and percentage of votes clearly indicated that HDZ will replace SDP as Croatia's ruling party.

This triggered mass defection of government officials to HDZ.

Yet, despite this historic setback, there was relatively little change in actual percentage of votes in second round _ held on May 6th and 7th _ mostly because Coalition of People's Accord candidates who had qualified refused to quit the race. This allowed SDP to win some constituences, especially in urban, middle_class and ethnic Serb areas.

The final outcome was undisputably clear. HDZ won almost two thirds of the seats and clear mandate to push any legislative and constitutional agenda. SDP become second biggest party in Parliament. The miniscule rest of the seats was won by parties of Coalition of People's Accord, Serb Democratic Party and few independent candidates.

Newly elected Parliament convened on May 30th 1990 and anniversary of that event would be later celebrated as Statehood Day _ public holiday in Croatia.